electionstracker

Australia 1987 federal election

What was the result of the 1987 federal election in Australia?

Australian Labor Party won 86 of 148 seats with 45.8% of the vote. 93.8% of registered voters cast a ballot.

  • Australia
  • Held:
  • Final result
  • ParlGov, read 5 October 2026

Which party won the most seats?

Final results from ParlGov, read : Australian Labor Party won 86 of 148 seats with 45.8% of the vote; 93.8% of registered voters cast a ballot, down 0.3 points on 1984.

  • Australian Labor Party 86 +4 seats 45.8% −1.7 points
  • Liberal Party of Australia 43 −1 seat 34.3% +0.2 points
  • National (Country) Party / National Party of Australia 19 −2 seats 11.5% +0.9 points
  • Australian Democrats 0 0 seats 6.0% +0.6 points
  • Seats won
  • Change on the previous election at the right
  • Share of the vote
  • Share at the previous election
  • Change in points at the right

Changes are against the Australia 1984 federal election, party by party.

75 of 148 seats make a majority

Key numbers

  1. 45.8%

    Share of the vote won by Australian Labor Party

    Australian Labor Party won 86 of 148 seats. A majority needs 75.

  2. +4 seats

    Seats gained by Australian Labor Party

    The largest gain in seats compared with 1984. National (Country) Party / National Party of Australia lost 2 seats.

  3. 93.8%

    Voter turnout

    Down 0.3 points on 1984.

Seats and votes by party

PartySeats± seats%± pointsVotes
Australian Labor Party86+445.8−1.74,232,563
Liberal Party of Australia43−134.3+0.23,169,391
National (Country) Party / National Party of Australia19−211.5+0.91,064,230
Australian Democrats006.0+0.6557,259
Independents002.0+0.6186,641

± is the change against the Australia 1984 federal election, party by party.

Votes by party
  • Australian Labor Party 4,232,563
  • Liberal Party of Australia 3,169,391
  • National (Country) Party / National Party of Australia 1,064,230
  • Australian Democrats 557,259
  • Independents 186,641

ParlGov lists parties with at least 1 percent of the vote or 2 seats, so the rows do not add up to the valid votes.

How many people voted?

93.8% of the 10,353,213 registered voters cast a ballot (9,715,440 ballots), down 0.3 points on 1984. 9,235,086 of them were valid votes. The lowest turnout since 1955 in our data.

How do the votes compare with the seats?

  • Australian Labor Party45.8% of votes58.1% of seats
  • Liberal Party of Australia34.3% of votes29.1% of seats
  • National (Country) Party / National Party of Australia11.5% of votes12.8% of seats
  • Australian Democrats6.0% of votes0.0% of seats
Each party's share of the vote (outlined) and of the seats (filled)

The Gallagher index of disproportionality is 10.5 (0 when seats follow votes exactly); the effective number of parties is 2.9 by votes and 2.3 by seats; Australian Labor Party led Liberal Party of Australia by 11.5 points of the vote.

Time and source Data as of